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Junior Boks end poor Championship run with seven-try win over Wales

Junior Boks' Sibabalwe Mahashe celebrates versus Wales in Cape Town (Photo by Carl Fourie/World Rugby)

The Junior Boks broke their three-game losing streak at the World Rugby U20 Championship, comfortably beating Wales 47-31 with a seven-try effort at the Cape Town Stadium in the seventh/eighth place play-off.

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Bafana Nhleko’s injury-hit side had lost twice to Argentina and England in their recent outings at a variety of venues following their opening night win over Fiji on June 29, but they took their frustration out on the Welsh, who came into the rankings decider having lost at the tournament to Australia, France and New Zealand.

A match day two win over Spain, who dramatically relegated Fiji with a sudden death try on Friday morning, was Wales’ only win at the Championship and hopes that they might extend South Africa’s misery got lost in a disappointing opening half-hour where they conceded three tries.

Skipper Zach Porthen got the hosts motoring on 10 minutes and other tries followed from Sibabalwe Mahashe and JF van Heerden to generate a 19-point gap that was reduced to 19-5 at the interval by Walker Price’s try.

Mahashe (46) and crowd favourite Bathobele Hlekani (56) then scored South African tries either side of one for Wales from Aidan Boschoff to make it 33-10.

The Welsh thought they might make things interesting with a Steffan Emanuel intercept try on 62 minutes, but the Junior Boks quickly responded with scores from Asad Moos (64) and Porthen’s second (68) to spin the lead out to 47-17.

Wales finished brightly, though, with a well-worked 73rd-minute try in the corner from the lively Price and a last-play 82nd-minute Owen Conquer score.

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J
JW 2 hours ago
Mick Cleary: 'These blokes have done the jersey proud, with their buy-in and with their relish.'

Jesus PR that’s another great conclusion. I can definitely see it as blocker to bringing through new talent in time for the WC. NZ underwent a lot of change in 2018 following the Lions tour, in part thanks to key injuries. Despite the revenue spending Aaron Cruden (getting frail even at his young age then) and Lima Sopoaga (along with Julien Savea), 2 of the 3 1st5s in the Lions squad, both left before the 2019 WC for example. But when we apply your logic, their delayed departure prevented Richie Mounga and Damien McKenzie (the 15 who got injured and threw a spanner in the works) from brought through in what would possible now be considered the preferred WC preparation. Ditto on the win with a scramble of constant change their all the way through to their WC 3rd/4th playoff.


Theres certainly cause to account for certain circumstances eventuating being influenced by a Lions tour. But as both nations here select from domestic players only, theres also cause to put similar emphasis on the contracting model in general, as sometimes you can hold on too long. Ireland has a similar model, talking to another irishman here he suggests it has lead to selecting based on contracts, money being spent on a player centrally contracted. So I would not so much worry about fatigue (in part because some incomplete analysis I had done on all.rugby shows the Irish contingent have low minutes this year) but continuing to select underperforming and aging players. When in a pure context of building for a WC, one would normally want to move on an develop the future.

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